Ask Lemmy

Just saw "The Play That Goes Wrong," and it is a two hour masterpiece of a play within a play.

I see videos of complete productions on youtube. Go watch one.

I haven't finished the book, but I have to give it to the "Navidson record" in "House of leaves".

House of leaves is a book about a guy who finds a manuscript about a movie that doesn't exist. So there are multiple layers on the narrative, from near to far you have:

• The editor who's editing the book
• The writer of the book (Johnny) who tells his story and what he finds in the manuscript
• The person who wrote the manuscript (Zampano) and his views on the movie
• The documentary "The Navidson record" which the manuscript is describing. Filmed by Navidson (who's, as far as Johnny can tell, a fictional character in a fictional movie that never existed)

The reason why I have to give it to that particular piece of media within media is that everyone else in the book is a pain in the ass that feels that you have to drag yourself to in order to get to the next chapter of the Navidson record. So in a way it's a fictional media within a fictional media that's better than the fictional media it belongs to.

And in case you haven't heard of house of leaves, I'll leave you with a page from the book:

Here's a website about those kinds of fake shows

https://nestflix.fun/

Threshold Kids in the Video game control it was a kids TV series to teach kids in the game about the FBC it was kinda bonkers

Sick Sad World from Daria. I'd love that show

"The Deb of Night" radio show from Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is consistently hilarious and a great way to relax between the more horrific parts of the game. Bonus points for one of the regular callers guessing the plot of the game by complete chance and one of the main villains calling in to threaten whoever might be listening.

I'm a big fan of fake brands/products in anime. I don't know why, but they bring me joy.

In "day of the tentacle" Bernard could walk up to the computer and play the game preceding day of the tentacle. That was nice.

The “Busty Asian Beauties” running gag in supernatural. Was a magazine, website etc. Always gave me a chuckle.

"Ow, My Balls" is a claaaassic.

Invitation To Love the soap opera that a lot of residents of Twin Peaks, especially Nadine, seemingly adored.

"S." by Doug Dorst is in itself a fake novel, where the "real" story takes place as handwritten notes in the margins to form the complete story, the fake novel itself just a prop. But reading the novel-within-a-novel-that-is-the-novel "Ship of Thesus" by itself is an interesting short surreal read.

Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff from Homestuck. Although it actually predates Homestuck and was retroactively converted into media-within-media, does that still count?

Gotta love The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon from The Murderbot Diaries.

Seven on 7 is a series of TV news shorts and commercials from The Boys universe. It's a delightful little parody of Fox News. The whole series is available free on YouTube.

Crash Nebula and The Crimson Chin from Fairly Oddparents are both great

McGarnigle from the Simpsons

Binky the Clown and The Buddy Bears from Garfield and Friends

Reptar from Rugrats

Interdimensional TV on Rick and Morty

Watched Asteroid City recently for the first time. I thought the play within the movie (and the intertwining back and forth of storylines) was really interesting and entertaining.

"Address Unknown", a twilight zone/detective noir tv show within the universe of Max Payne.

Welcome to Nightvale.

Black Mirror. News tickers and headlines discuss other world-building stories from different episodes.

Tales of The Black Freighter in Watchmen. Comic in a comic.